KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 — Malaysia’s construction sector will be impacted if the new Pakatan Harapan (PH) regime under Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad decides to cancel, suspend or even review some large scale China-backed infrastructure projects, BMI Research said today.

While the Fitch Group unit said it doesn’t believe the PH government would cancel projects such as the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), Singapore-KL High Speed Rail (HSR), including the mega Forest City project, it predicted possible delays to funding.

"Previously, the deadline for the primary tender for the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur High-Speed Railway had been pushed back from June 2018 to December 2018 following requests by bidders; the uncertainties surrounding the project following the elections could cause further delays,” it said in its report.

BMI noted that the country’s construction sector had grown at annual average of 9 per cent between 2013 and 2017.

Dr Mahathir had pledged to review all mega projects sanctioned by Barisan Nasional under Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

He had said that some of these projects might be cancelled and labelled some of them as "wasteful” and "unnecessary”.